1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet conveying apparatus which has a first conveying guide which conveys a sheet and a second conveying guide which is arranged closer to a downstream side in a sheet conveying direction than the first conveying guide and conveys a sheet, an image reading apparatus therewith, and an image forming apparatus therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, to apply various processes to the sheet, an image forming apparatus has inside an image forming apparatus body a sheet conveying mechanism which conveys a sheet. During this process of conveying the sheet, there is a problem that a phenomenon (so-called jam) occurs that the sheet jams. When jam occurs, a conveying guide which forms a sheet conveying path is opened and closed to expose the sheet conveying path and allow a user to remove the jammed sheet.
To provide an opening/closing mechanism to the above conveying guide, the conveying guide is formed with a plurality of conveying guides and comb shapes are used to a seam site of the conveying guides (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-32040).
However, in the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-32040, when a sheet passes between comb conveying guides, a front end of the sheet contacts an upstream end of the conveying guide located on a downstream side in a conveying direction (between a convex portions) and damage such as a scratch may be left on the front end of the sheet. Further, when the above comb conveying guides are provided closer to the downstream in the sheet conveying direction than an image reading portion, a shock caused when a sheet front end contacts the combs may cause image deterioration such as a read image which is out of color registration. Furthermore, when a lateral end of a sheet contacts the combs, the sheet which is being conveyed may be skew fed and sheet conveying performance may decrease.